Kolkata: In a jibe at his former leader-turned-political rival Mamata Banerjee, the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari Wednesday said the Trinamool Congress supremo had fled away from her home turf Bhabanipur to faraway Nandigram before the 2021 assembly poll as her party had consistently got fewer votes in the constituency in the last two Lok Sabha polls.
Adhikari, who had won in Nandigram in the April-May state election, said "the unelected CM" will be defeated again before Durga Puja and the "souls" of BJP workers killed by Trinamool goons in post-poll attacks will find peace. Banerjee is contesting the September 30 by-poll in Bhabanipur to win a seat within six months and return to the Assembly by November 5 as per constitutional provisions to continue as chief minister.
"In 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections TMC had trailed behind BJP in Bhabanipur segment of South Kolkata constituency. Sensing defeat if she contested from Bhabanipur this time too, Banerjee fled to Nandigram with an eye on the vote bank in that seat. But the people of Nandigram gave her a befitting reply," Adhikari said at a meeting in support of BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal in the Bhabanipur by-poll.
The TMC supremo had contested and won the Bhabnipur seat in 2011 and 2016. "I can sense her ambitions will not be fulfilled and the souls of BJP workers, like Abhijit in Beleghata, who had been brutally killed by TMC activists on the day of counting will find peace," Adhikari said. The BJP leader referred to the death of the party's candidate from Magrahat Poschim, Dhurjoti Saha during the day and alleged that he was thrashed by TMC goons on the day of counting on May 2 and had remained critical since then.